you'll hear about all of that in this next hour. but first, developing right now from the g-8 summit, a new commitment to solve the european debt crisis is emerging at the largest-ever gathering of ministers at camp david. progress is being made on the nuclear threat from iran. >> we are unified when it comes to our approach with iran. i think all of us agree that iran has the right to peaceful nuclear power. but its continuing violations of international rules and norms and its inability thus far to convince the world community that it's not pursuing the weaponization of nuclear power is something of grave concern to all of us. >> they also took on other international issues in syria and north korea. nbc white house correspondent mike viqueira is at camp david.

hello to you, mike. >> reporter: good afternoon to you, alex. the g-8 continues here in camp dav david, maryland. there is a sick man in europe and that is greece. there is concern that he could infect the rest of the continent with an economic downturn. and the contagion could spread to the united states. that issue is front and center here as these g-8 leaders gather with their host, president obama. he greeted each individual leader last night at laurel cavern at camp david. if you look am at the some of these leaders, many of them are new. it's caused so much political upheaval. and no one needs to be reminding it is an election year in the united states where the economy is front and center. the italian prime minister, the japanese prime minister, the french president, all new faces at the g-8. last night at the working dinner, they talked about some of the issues surrounding this summit, notably iran and its

nuclear ambitions. and syria calling for more action in the face of the hue man torian and the considered on sloougt by assad's forces there. voters turned out the government that favored the austerity plan this had been imposed on it in europe. and francois hollande defeated nicolas sarkozy. angela merkel, the chancellor of germany, has been against some issues. they're going to have a class photo. the president is going to be speaking later today before he takes off the for the nato summit in chicago. afghanistan and protesters on the streets of his hometown. >> mike viqueira, thanks for that.

there are those leaders, foreign dignitaries having gathered there at camp david. it's attrition done at every g-8 summit. in this case, they are very casually dressed. this group will be meeting this afternoon. it will be closed to the media but after that, they will have their respective plans to take to the skies and travel to chicago where they will be attending the nato summit there. nonetheless, we're going to keep -- let's keep this picture up. it's fun to see where they are and how they're all gathering and the different poses they strike. let's bring in front page politics, the national unemployment rate currently at 8.1%. but 34 states now have an unemployment rate below that figure. 15 states and the district of columbia have unemployment above 8.1%. the unemployment rate in washington state matches the national rate.

new mexico, colorado, ohio, virginia, all have unemployment rates below the national average. nevada, north carolina and florida have unemployment rates above it. president obama has an edge when it comes to voters under the age of 40. at the same time, mitt romney leads among voters 40 and older. as we go back to this live picture shs i picture, i'm going to bring in molly ball. everyone looks so friendly. they have a communal voice as they've been trying to deal with the european debt crisis. molly? oh, no, david knack mnakamura i us. >> i'm here at camp david. >> what's going on with this

group photo. and assess the meetings this morning and how successful they were and to what extent they're talking with a communal voice, these world leaders. >> as you know, the leaders met last night for a working dinner. they met this morning for another round of talks. president obama gave some remarks at the top of the discussion where he said there's a lot of agreement among this group of eight nations and al. the president didn't say anything different than the line they've taken which is they're going to continue hard sanctions on iran and they look forward to talks this week in baghdad. i think you're going to see the rest of day focus on the european debt crisis. a lot of talk with the new french president to talk about a growth pattern and not just austerity measures and trying to make sure the financial fallout from europe doesn't affect the rest of the world. >> david, you stick around. joining me in this conversation,

molly ball, national political reporter for "the atlantic." i want to begin about that new gallup poll which shows a majority of voters 40 and older support mitt romney while a majority of those under the age of 40 go for the president. how do you read these numbers? >> well, the top line in that poll is that the two candidates are tied 46/46. i don't think it's a surprise that obama are winning among younger voters and losing among older voters. but you look at the 18 to 29 vote, obama is losing ground from where he was in 2008 with every single age group, even that 18 to 29 age group. that's a group he won by 34 points in 2008, according to the exit polls. he is losing to mitt romney by seven points among voters in their 40s. he actually battled john mccain to a tie in the 45 to 64 age

group in 2008, 50/49. so what we're seeing is the reason this election is tied is that among every group of voters, young and old, obama has lost ground. >> david, your takeaway from this poll, do you see this as an advantage for mitt romney or for the president? keeping in mind we're six months out. >> yeah, i think it's a little bit early to say the definitive advantage one way or the other. but i think that molly's right and it's a concern for the obama campaign. you saw him come out in favor of gay marriage. i think they hope -- they really think that appeals to younger voters and that's where the country is headed. they think that makes a distinction with mitt romney and can fire up the base. the president's talked a lot about student loans, which is an issue that young people are dealing with. he's going to make a speech in missouri, some might say that's a swing state. it is uphill sledding here. >> molly, looking at your latest

article, you write about the obama camp targeting mitt romney's business background, specifically his time at bain capital. do you get a sense of how effective that line of attack has been? >> my sense that that is one of the most effective attacks in any candidates' arsenal running against mitt romney. that's why it's been brought up against him every time he ran for office, starting in 1994 against ted kennedy, almost the same ad with the sort of sad, laid-off workers looking at the camera saying mitt romney took away my pension. but my take is that it works on an emotional level. it works as more or less a personal attack on what it is mitt romney cares about, what his values are, whether he's just sort of a mean, greedy, rich guy which is the caricature we've heard for so long. i'm not sure it works as a policy argument. the obama campaign is trying say, you want to talk about the

xhik economy, let's talk about your economic credential. but you can tell how he would run the economy, he would run up national debt because he ran up debt as a private ceo -- i'm not convinced there's as much of a parallel there. >> what's the takeaway from the discussion, have we learned anything from what happened four years ago? >> yeah, i think that blew up on those who were planning that and considering that line of attack. you saw the romney campaign ran away from that definitively and quickly. it was out there four years ago. everybody who pays close attention knows that president obama had a relationship with reverend wright and now i think that is in the past. because it's come out now early enough, that's going to be over. however, over the next six

months, we're going to see other things that are going to be considered -- this is already going to be a nasty campaign. and with the big money and big advertisements you're going to see on television, that's going to continue. >> molly, had this campaign been funded, what would the fallout have been for the gop? don't you think that might have had the greater impact than what they would have been trying to do to bring down the president? >> i think you could see that from the way both sides responded to this non-campaign when it came out this week, that you had the republicans very much running away from it and saying, no, let's keep the focus on the economy. let's not get into this kind of gutter politics. and the democrats really trying to bring it front and center and say, look, this is who these people are, this is what they're about, they care about these kind of nasty, sort of plays to that small segment of the republican base that still thinks this is the important thing president obama's past associations. so you had the obama campaign sending out fund-raising e-mails

and other democratic committees trying to do that, trying to associate republicans with this extreme element, even as republicans were very much running away from it. >> david, i want to ask you quickly about the newcomer to the crowd there at the g-8, the new president of france, francois hollande. how do you read his immersion into this group and particularly how he developed his relationship with the president? >> he visited the white house yesterday before both he and president obama came to camp david. they seemed to have a pretty friendly relationship right off the bat. the reporters there described a comfortable feeling there. the thing we're going to see here is german chancellor merkel has an opposite point of view. she wants the other countries to crack down on their finances and have a more austerity plan. i think that's going to be the debate that comes out of here. and there's also the question of

afghanistan, the french president talking about a quicker withdrawal of french forces by the end of the year that doesn't dovetail with the nato's plan and u.s. plan by 2014. that's another area where he and the president still have some work today. >> thanks, guys. the other big developing story at this hour, the blind chinese dissident, chen guangcheng, is on his way to america right now. he and his family are bound for newark, new jersey. chen became the center of controversy after he sought refuge in the american embassy in beijing. he is expected to study law at new york university. still ahead -- >> people want to go on the internet and check out their friends. so why not offer a website that offers that? browse around, maybe it's someone you just met at a party. but not talking about a dating site. i'm talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it on line. >> you're going to hear from the

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advocacy group hopes to gather 50,000 signatures by the end of the summer. this petition would ask president obama for a ban like the one enacted in january for bidding new mining claims near the grand canyon. the nevada jobless rate has dipped to 11.7%. the first time in three years the unemployment rate in that state has fallen below 12%. and a story about lonesome larry, a singular fish from 20 years ago that helped save the state's salmon population. the article chronicles how this one fish was used in a captive breeding program to keep his species from extinction. the world leaders gathering in the u.s. for these back-to-back meetings this weekend. they are at the g-8 summit in the hills of maryland right now. but later today, they all head to the nato summit in chicago where this hour, thousands of police officers are bracing for more demonstrations planned in advance of tomorrow's meeting. nbc's kristen welker is in

chicago for us. what are the developments? >> reporter: good afternoon to you, alex. police have been out in full force for the past several days to make sure that there is heightened security ahead of the nato summit. they have blocked off a number of roads around mccormick place, where the majority of the nato meetings will take place. there's also heightened security on public transportation. to that point, we had some developments today. authorities closed down a number of trains along one line due to reports of a suspicious package. they went, they investigated. just recently they gave the all-clear. it turned out to be just an empty suitcase. but this is the type of heightened alert that we are seeing throughout the city. you talked about protests. they've already started today. 5 reporter at the scene tells us that as many as 100 protests right now are outside the house of chicago mayor rahm emanuel. other protests scheduled for later today. so far the protests have been

peaceful but loud. yesterday, more than 2,000 protests turned out. only one person arrested. but we want to say that earlier this week, several people were arrested, including three people who are still being held on terrorism conspiracy charges. authorities say that they were making molotov cocktails. their attorneys says that was not the case, that they were just brewing beer. as many as 5,000 protesters expected to turn out tomorrow. >> kristen welker, thank you very much for the latest from chicago. we're going to go now to number four, the most expensive apartment ever sold in new york city. the unidentified buyer spent more than $90 million on an unfinished duplex in midtown. when construction wraps up, it will have 11,000 square feet. it's on the same square as karn any hall and the russian tea room. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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and a lot more - spring per dollar. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. this toro mower is just $334. right now, during toro days. right now, president obama's meeting with the world leaders at camp david for the g-8 summit. and moments ago, those leaders posed for the traditional group photo. the world's eight richest economies are there on the largest-ever gathering of world leaders at camp david. joining me is michael elliott. good to see you. thanks for being here. >> great to be with you, alex. >> president obama said he and the other g-8 leaders are working on the euro debt crisis. realistically, put into perspective how bad this is and what they could do to help fix it during a meeting at camp david? >> it's real bad. the situation in europe right now is on a knife edge. you have greece facing a second

round of elections, a second election just in a couple of weeks' time. you've got the greek population, very, very opposed to the austerity measures that have been imposed on them. you've got a new government in france that's saying that the european economic situation needs to be tilted away from austerity towards growth. you've got chancellor merkel who in the past has resisted that. my suspicion is that what's happening at camp david at the moment is that there is a concerted effort going on to make sure that the greek situation does not tip the whole of europe into economic chaos, which of course, would impact us here in the u.s. chancellor merkel is a very, very clever, wily politician. i wouldn't be at all surprised if when the communique comes out this afternoon, there is some language in it that indicates the austerity measures have to be at least coupled with a growth strategy for greece and for europe as a whole. >> yeah. and when you talk about its

effect here in the united states, should greek topple, how direct would the problems be? we hear politicians bring it all up and talk about greece as being a problem, economic analysts as well. how would we feel that here? >> greece is a country of only 10 million people. so greece on its own doesn't impact the world economy. i think what people are really worried about is that if there is severe dislocation in greece, it spreads to a credit crisis and impacts the banks in spain and italy, too. that would cause severe disruption. the european union is the world's largest economy. it would cause chaos among many banks. and of course the international banking system is a single system. it's a system in which every bank is linked to every other bank. so the contagion, the domino effect, if you like, might start

with a relatively small part of the world economy. greece, as i say, only 10 million or so people. but it could easily have an effect on credit structures and banks over here in the u.s. >> but when you look at that group of eight right now, the wealthiest nations and they're all gathering together and they're talking about it, what can they actually produce, michael, from this meeting that will have a direct effect on how greece deals with its financial problems? >> the pivotal point, really is where the germans can be per swayed to allow expansionary measures in europe, relax those a little bit. so many money is pumped into the system by the european central bank and others. so some of the really tough conditions that have been placed on greece are relaxed a little bit so people can imagine that growth is coming forward.

so the key person, as so often in the last two or three years is chancellor merkel. and she is someone who is a very, very clever reader of the way in which the political wind is blowing. which is why i suspect when all is said and done, there may well be movement towards a more growth agenda in europe when the g-8 finish those lovely photographs west of maryland. look like a pretty happy bunch. >> they did. all waving, a congenial group there. speaking of growth agendas, i know with the one organization, your company, michael, the dealing with the problems of aids and poverty in africa has been something you've tried to tackle. where does that stand and what are you doing about it? >> there was a major event here yesterday in washington, d.c. where president obama spoke at a summit, a pre-g-8 summit.

made a major speech in which he committed to the u.s. and the g-8 to a whole new approach of a partnership with african nations to make sure that people, first of all, have the food that they need and secondly food to feed the whole of the rest of the world because we're moving to a population of 9 billion people. we can't feed the world without increased productivity, increased food supplies in africa, in particular. that was a big deal for us. bonanno, who is the co-founder of the organization, gave a wonderful speech. we'll be waiting to see very carefully what's in the communique and the extent to which it matches some of the wonderful words and promises that president obama made yesterday. >> seeing if they put their power and money where their mouth s. thank you so much, michael elliott. good to see you. >> thanks, alex. see you soon. it's time now for "strategy

talk" where the tactics of late from the presidential election seems to be attack at all costs. joining me now is larry sabito and jonathan alter. gentlemen, good to see you both. thanks for being here. jonathan, i'm goim going to reach out to you first. you brought to our attention this recent newsletter from a virginia county republican committee that featured an op ed that called for an armed uprising if president obama is reelected. >> armed revolution. i'm going to be interested to know what larry says about this because he's actually from charlottesville, virginia, where this is taking place. >> larry's a very reasonable guy. >> there's a talk show host and a republican party activist in green county, virginia, who runs a newsletter. and in his newsletter, this guy -- his name is ponch mcphee,

wrote that should obama be reelected there would be, quote, armed revolution in this country. now, you can imagine if somebody on the left -- if some sort of democratic party functionary or a radio host said this, fox news would be blanketed with this story. i'm not suggesting that msnbc go wall to wall with this story. but it's important to take note that this is the level of rhetoric we're getting in some places in this country. >> larry, add this rhetoric that jonathan's talking about to the return of the birthers in arizona, the reverend wright attack ad. what is going on with the republican party? what can you tell us about this green county gop issue? >> well, i want to stress to you and to jon that green county, let's put it this way, would have to be a long back yard from charlottesville. that's quite a ways from charlottesville, as far as i'm concerned. it's a heavily republican county.

of course it was outrage. i always tell people, there are 310 million americas. there have to be at least 1 million nuts. there was one of them. we certainly disown that comment here in the city of charlottesville, that's all i can tell you. >> okay. >> as far as the reverend wright matter is concerned, again, it's outrageous. it's just red meat for the base. it doesn't have any impact on the election. i would assume cooler heads in the republican party would prevail and apparently they have on the romney side. they understand this will not help them and they've suggest that had it not be done. >> but, larry, why even go there to begin with? doesn't this frame the gop party in a terribly unflattering light? it just -- it changes the conversation and it just makes people look at the gop and think, you've got to be kidding me, this is what you're talking about? >> well, yeah, i'm also in a state where in the past few

months, we've had an inordinate emphasis on social issues from transvaginal ultrasounds to an outrageous and embarrassing defeat of a nominee for a judgeship simply because he was gay. so, frankly, these things are not helping republicans in virginia. if virginia ends up going for obama again, i think it will be one reason why. this is not a state that is intolerant on social issues. it tends to be conservative on fiscal issues. but they've gone outside the mainstream on some of these social issues. and certainly the language that was used in that green county newsletter was ridiculous. >> when you wrote this blog s this a mega frenzy, full frenzy or frenziette when you talk about the reverend wright story? >> it's a frenziette. i think i interviewed jon alter

for that book 25 years ago. >> yes, you did. >> we're all coming back together here in one place. but it doesn't have an impact. we're going to have two dozen of these little frenziettes between now and the next event that really matters in the presidential election, which is the selection of mitt romney's running mate. >> there is a way in which i think this might have some lasting effect and might actually peculiarly help mitt romney. this guy, joe rickettes -- >> owner of the chicago cubs. >> founder of ameritrade. he's now pulled back. he's obviously not going to do this crazy -- >> which is the jeremiah wright -- >> right. the jeremiah wright ad that he was considering. and i think the message that it sends -- he's about to lose or potentially lose $100 million tax deal with the city of chicago to refurbish wrigley field as a result of this because rahm emanuel, the mayor,

won't even return their phone calls because of this. wanting to take taxpayer money from chicago to fund his ballpark, that's a different story. but the message that this sends to these billionaire freelancers is to pull in their horns a little bit, not play in the super pac arena in quite the same way. they'll still give money but they'll give to it karl rove's crossroads -- >> safer investments? >> right. rather than doing their own super pacs. that means the super pac ads are more on the economy and less on these extraneous issues that don't help romney. that will potentially help romney over the course of this campaign that the super pac money will be more focused on what he would consider to be

reputable super pacs. >> it will help long term because once the headlines day out at the initial onset? >> right. but it will keep things inbounds for him as he goes on the attack. >> i want to talk about something else that caught my eye with you, larry. the government releasing new numbers on state unemployment. they show 34 states have unemployment rates below the national rate of 8.1%. those states are all down year over year. does it mean it's an impriest proving economy and if so, is that a problem for mitt romney's campaign? >> the key to president obama's reelection is absolutely an improvement in the economy. and people believing that the economy is improving. i'm an econocentric analyst about this. what's interesting, this is what i expect to see in the general election.

there are certain states that aren't going to be mutual fund no matter what's happening. california has a much higher-than-normal unemployment rate. north dakota has the lowest unemployment rate in the country but there's no chance they'll vote for obama. they're going to vote for romney. but look at the swing states. some of those key swing states you're putting up there now have lower-than-arch unemployment rates. compare north carolina and virginia. north carolina is well above the national average. it's one reason why mitt romney might carry north carolina this year. but look at virginia. 5.6% unemployment, way below the 8.1% national rate. the obama team will be guilty of professional malpractice if they don't center the general election campaign in this state around the very low unemployment rate. >> you make good points, as always. larry, thank you so much. jonathan, i appreciate it. now to number one on our first five web stories, history

is on hold right now on florida's space coast. officials have scrubbed the launch of what would have been the first private rocket to reach the space station. a computer noticed engine trouble on the falcon 9 rocket a half second before liftoff. the mission is a critical test for nasa's plans to outsource trips to the space station and focus on larger missions. crews will attempt another launch next tuesday. we'll have more on this with astronaut mark kelly in our next hour. stay with us. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%,

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fire ♪ >> channeling our classic country right there. aliens invade the earth by sea in the new action blockbuster "battleship" from universal pictures. here's a clip. >> one day, we find them or they find us. you know else he said? he said, hope i ain't around when that day comes. >> yikes! amy palmer, we're going to talk about must-see, must-avoid. was that rihanna's voice i heard there? >> that was. she's really good in this movie. i'm making this film a must-see. everyone is so surprised because they think it looks so terrible. but this is a really good movie. it's a summer block buice we are

a heart. directed by peter berg who directed "friday night lights." i love the cast. there were really touchy moments. i think the kids will love this. i think adults will like it. rihanna did a great job. it's a must-see. >> and we're just going to say, yes, it is by universal pictures. it's our parent pictures but we're not promoting it for that reason. how about "the dictator"? the build-up has been coming for how many years, seems like? >> yes, many years. this is a must-avoid. i saw this in a movie theater with three people. nobody was laughing. i was offended by many parts. i'm just telling you from the average moviegoer's stance, it's a must-avoid. this is his fourth film starring and co-writing in a movie and i just thought it missed the mark. >> his fans will go.

but others, not so much. >> and i don't think it's going to do very well at the box office. >> what about this big-name grouping with the comedy "what to expect when you're expecting"? >> 32 million books sold worldwide. unfortunately, expect to be very disappointed in this film. i went to the premiere of this. i actually watched it with the stars of the movie. >> great cast. >> great cast. but it was uncomfortable because midway i realized that this movie is a bomb. jennifer lopez, cameron diaz, elizabeth banks, ben falcone, it touched on modern topics but it fell flat for me. this is a must-avoid. >> i wondered how they were going to make this a movie anyway because that book -- i've read it twice, you know. it's the kind of thing, it's advice. i wondered how they would change it into a movie. >> if you're creative and you have good writing bend behind it -- there are some touching parts. but with a cast like that and 32

million books sold, i would think it would be a lot better than it was. >> at least you're always great with us. thank you, amy. dr. nancy snyderman on how decades ago hillary clinton played an unexpected role in her life. recently, students from 31 countries took part in a science test. the top academic performers surprised some people. so did the country that came in 17th place. let's raise the bar and elevate our academic standards. let's do what's best for our students-by investing in our teachers. let's solve this.

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the facebook ipo got off to a rocky start yesterday with a traffic overload at the nasdaq, sending would-be investors error messages, combined with tepid movement in the stock price. that resulted in a gain of just about 23 cents for the day. joining me is ben mez reshgs -- was it successful? >> not the crazy success that a lot of people hoped.

it wasn't flying how of the gate. i think overall, there was so much press and so much hype, it would have been hard to live up to it. so many people were wanting to buy shares it kind of went crazy. but the price never exploded. you couldn't call it a huge success. >> let's compare this, taking a look at how a few other big tech ipos have fared since their launch. $1,000 investment in oracle's ipo, that's now worth about $500,000. even google launching just eight years ago, that would leave you up to 700% of a profit there. can facebook see that sort of growth, do you think? >> i wish i had bought oracle, right? >> i know, right? >> over time, i think facebook is here to stay. facebook is a monster. it's changed the world we live in. when you look five years from now, i personally think facebook will grow and be bigger and whether you'll get those returns or not, it's hard to imagine

that it could be -- it's already $104 billion company at the level it's at right now. who knows if you can get that kind of return. but i do think over time facebook is going to be a part of our lives. >> the majority of the headlines have been pretty negative about the ipo. you think there's a little bit of a shod and fraud going on here against mark zuckerberg? he did not come off that like nbl your book and in the film "the social network". >> i'm personally filled with envy. but overall, i think mark is a cool person. i think people look up to him and respect him in a way. he's not lovable like a teddy bear. but college kids look at this and say, i want to do that or i would to be there. overall, definitely when you see young people getting this wealthy this fast, everyone wishes it could be them. i think that's human nature. but all of this hype, all of this craziness, i think, is partly due to the movie and

partly because we're all on facebook. so we all feel like we're a part of it. so, yea, it's one of those stories. >> what about -- considering what you know about zuckerberg, do you think there was partying going on in menlo park last night or not? would he be inclined to party with success or thought the rollout was tepid so he's not going to go do that? >> well, the kind of guys i write about, they're not doing tequila shots off the bar. they were doing one of their programming nights all night long. they're not going to show up in lamborghinis or go out on their yachts. this started in a dining room room. it was a couple of college kids in a dorm room. now they're billionaires. i'm sure there was a lot of moments when they looked in mirror and just said, wow. >> yeah, people go on tours and look at the room on campus where it all happened.

>> yeah, it's a different world. >> ben, thank you so much for joining me. i'm sure we'll speak with you again. have a good one. >> thank you very much. here's what we've been asking you today, will facebook stock eventually live up to the hype? here are some of your tweets and facebook responses. steven says facebook will lose its charm in a few years. and david says, i bought 100 facebook at the market open and sold a few hours later and made 79 bucks. not what i expected. my only hope is public ownership will make the management stop imposing limitation on friending. keep talking to me. i'll read more of your response later. california in crisis, why does the state have a chronic budget problem? i'll be asking the former governor of that state, gray davis, coming up next here on "weekends with alex witt." rv. [ merv ] thanks, other merv. mr. clean magic eraser extra power was three times faster on permanent marker. elsewhere against dirt, it was a sweep, with scuffed sports equipment... had it coming. grungy phones...

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we're going to get to what's happening right now. developing now from camp david, within just this past hour, the leaders of the g-8 summit, there you see them posing for the traditional group photo, it's the largest-ever gathering of world leaders there at camp david. and now president obama says more work needs to be done to solve the european debt crisis. >> obviously the eurozone will be one topic and all of us are absolutely committed to making sure that both growth and stability and fiscal consolidation are part of a overall package that all of us have to pursue in order to achieve the kind of prosperity for our citizens that we're looking for. >> nbc white house correspondent mike viqueira is live at camp david. with a good day to you, mike. looks like beautiful weather, beautiful day for a group photo. >> reporter: it is. >> talk about the latest

headlines and what they're going to be tackling into their closed-door session this afternoon. >> reporter: it's interesting. president obama used two buzz words that might fly under the radar. fiscal consolidation, really tight fiscal policy, the austerity programs you've heard about in europe. and now the stimulus program that is many people are encouraging the europeans to embark upon because their economy is simply slowing down too much and especially in the wake of those greeks elections where greek voters said, we're tired of austerity, they threw out our government. something similar happened over the weekend in france when francois hollande was elected. he's bearly minted as the president of france. as a matter of fact, all the economic downturn over the course -- all over the globe over the course of the last several years had led to a political upheaval. it's led to a new italian prime minister, a new french president.

since we saw the president making that statement, they have put out a g-8 joint statement, if you will. they usually call ate communique. trying to pare it down this year. tries to walk a line between growth and austerity. it's known that the germans with angela merkel here, the chancellor of germany, trying to keep austerity front and center, so they're trying to make that balance, even as the united states encourages europe to try to do a little bit more on the stimulus side of things. >> then they take off from there. about what time are they scheduled to break camp david? and does everyone head to chicago this afternoon? >> reporter: that's right. many of these same leaders will head to chicago for the nato summit this afternoon. remember, the g-8 and nato summit were supposed to be in chicago. i think we're seeing some indication why they moved this to a mountaintop 50 miles from the center of downtown

washington. because of the demonstrations anticipated, they are there and continued throughout yesterday in chicago around the nato summit. the president will speak here around 5:45 eastern time to wrap things up and then head to chicago for the nato summit. >> thanks, mike. new today, the romneys are throwing more of their own money into the campaign. romney and his wife, ann, contributed $75,000 each to the romney victory fund. on the campaign trail, mitt romney's comparing america's financial situation to the debt crisis in greece. he spoke as an unfinished bridge in new hampshire friday, a project that mitt romney claims recovery act dollars were supposed to help complete. he also responded to a group of protesters. >> and you know, we have behind us a greek chorus. and i say that because they remind us that this president is leading us towards greece. and one reason we're going to get rid of him is to make sure we don't continue to have the kind of deficits that lead to

greece. >> and president obama's getting more help from hollywood friends. actress sarah jessica parker will host a fund-raiser for the president add her manhattan home in june. a fund-raiser at george clooney's home raised $15 million for the obama campaign. the issue of president obama's birth certificate is being raised again. ken bennett has sparked controversy by asking the state of hawaii to confirm the president's birth certificate exists. he's not gotten proof and says that he might keep the president off the arizona ballot. well, here's what arizona senator john mccain and governor jan brewer had to say about it. >> i've had the opportunity to speak with the prior governor. and she indicated to me with all due process and trustworthiness that she had seen the birth certificate, it was a valid birth certificate. that's the story from where i know it. >> the president of the united states is not going to be taken off the ballot.

>> they both support governor mitt romney. i'm joined now by perry bacon, jr., as well as felicia sonmez. perry, we have new numbers today on the unemployment situation in the country. it shows that 34 states have unemployment rates below the national average of 8.1%. 15 states and washington have rates above the national average. and one state, washington, which matches the national rate. what kind of an impact might these numbers have on the jean election especially with so much focus on the economy and jobs? >> this could be really big. look at a state like ohio where the unemployment rate is lower than the national average. that's a state mitt romney has to win basically to win the election. and mitt romney says the economy is really bad, look at what president obama's done. but then john kasich, the republican governor of that

state, is talking about how the economy is improving there. it's going to hurt romney's message when governors say, the economy is recovering here, like president obama is saying. >> how about this, felicia? take a look at the key battleground states. we have new mexico, colorado, ohio, virginia, they all have the unemployment rates below the national average. then you look at nevada, north carolina and florida, unemployment rates above 8.1%. how do you think numbers like this will impact the election? >> i think those numbers show -- and right now, nine states are going to be the swing states that maertter in this election. the unemployment rates are all over the place there. to perry's point, it's interesting that helping out democrats is the fact that you've got some gop governors in these states making the case for democrats that the economy is getting better at the same time that romney's campaign is making the opposite case. and in the case of ohio and

virginia, you've actually got some democratic senate candidates who are in very competitive races who we've seen in the past few weeks had actually gone out on the campaign trail and campaigned with president obama when he visited those two states. i think that's a sign that democrats are feeling pretty confident, both and down the ballot in those states. the question, of course, is how do voters feel personally about how the economy is affecting them? and when it comes to that, the unemployment rate is just one of many factors f. you look at ohio, three-quarters of voters there say they think the economy is still in a recession. the unemployment rate is only one of a bunch of different factors. >> absolutely. perry, what about your latest article, it features a new report which shows the percentage of minority voters in north carolina and florida has increased. according to the institute for southern studies, the percentage of non-white voters in north carolina is now at 29%, which is up five points from the last presidential election. in florida, the percentage is now 30%, up 2% from '08.

what's the takeaway? >> north carolina, obama won by .4%. florida by 2%. those are very close states. what we found is that black, latino and asian american voters all pretty heavily favor president obama over republicans in general. that might end up being the difference or helping put obama over the top in north carolina and florida, two states like ohio that romney's basically got to win to win the election. >> felicia, what about the mention of the birther controversy in arizona? you may have detect add bit of a tone of almost disgust in my voice because you write about this in your latest article. bring us up to speed. what's the latest you're hearing about this. is it really possible the president's game would not appear on the ballot in arizona? >> well, that's sort of at the root of this is the fact that the arizona statehouse and state senate last year passed a measure that would have effectively give the secretary

of state there the authority to decide whether or not a candidate is actually -- has provided enough proof of citizenship to make it on the ballot. and the governor, jan brewer, vetoed that saying she did not think this would a helpful discussion to be having in the party. one person that might be chag n chagrinned is mitt romney because this is another aspect of the gop base that he is being pressured by democrats to come out and repudiate. he's kept his distance so far from this. as we saw with the reverend wright prospective ad that was going to be coming out this week, that was something that he eventually felt he needed to put his foot down. this is something he's still keeping at arm's length. but it does not put the gop in a good light when looking at things nationally. >> this is interesting, perry, that newt gingrich is speaking this weekend at the state gop convention in columbus, ohio. he says the obama camp's attacks on romney over his time at bain capital will not work. he said, quote, that dog won't hunt.

ultimately how effective do you think this line after attack could be against mitt romney? >> we've seen two examples of it working. in 1994 when romney ran against ted kennedy, kennedy focus add lot on the bain capital issue, hurt romney. earlier in this campaign, gingrich actually mentioned the bain capital issue in south carolina. and gingrich won south carolina. i think the obama campaign is going to try -- it's a strategy that has worked in the past. they're going to push this bain thing for a long time to see if it works a third time. >> you think it's going to have any legs there, any bite to it, felicia? >> i think absolutely. the important thing to remember here is that while we sit here and talk about mitt romney day in and day out, it's unknown to a large part of the country and part of the battle heading into november is going to be trying to define him as a candidate and what better way for the obama campaign to do that than to try to take the initiative with these bain ads? the question, though, is how much money they're going to be putting behind these. we saw the two-minute ad they rolled out earlier this month, was only about an $87,000 ad.

that was more about them trying to get free earned media in the race here. the question is, are they really going to be putting money behind this or are they going to try to ride it out in the earned media realm of things? >> we'll see. thank you both very much. back-to-back meetings for world leaders in the u.s. this meeting. after the g-8 summit wraps up at camp david this afternoon, those leaders head to chicago for the nato summit where at this hour, thousands of police officers are bracing for more demonstrations planned before tomorrow's meeting. kristen welker is in chicago for us. kristen, another hello to you. how are things going there? outcries, do you see people demonstrating -- although i know where you are, that's been pretty securely cordoned off, right? >> reporter: that's right. mccormick place, very secure. a number of roads around where we are have been blocked off. this is where the majority of the nato meetings will be taking place.

police on heightened security especially ahead of tomorrow's protest. that's expected to be the largest protest expected to draw about 5,000 people. reverend jesse jackson expected to spooem speak there. authorities are hoping that it remains peaceful. their big concern is that violent protesters will take advantage of that large number of gathering of people and turn it into a violent protest. so authorities hoping that that doesn't happen. but the protests have already begun. one today particularly outside of the house of chicago mayor rahm emanuel. i believe we have a live look outside of his house right now where you can see some of the protesters gathered. one reporter who was at the scene earlier said that they had seen as many as 100 people gathered outside. alex, these protests have been taking place for the past several days. and they have been peaceful, including one yesterday that drew more than 2,000 people, only one person arrested there. but we should say earlier this week, several people were arrested. three of them still detained on terrorism conspiracy charges.

authorities say they believe they were making molotov cocktails. attorneys for those people say that's not the case. they say they were simply brewing beer in their home. those people have a bond hearing today and we are expecting protesters at a bond hearing. authorities hope all the protests remain peaceful. >> yeah, i don't know. i don't think i want to taste that kind of beer if it's confused with a molotov cocktail. >> reporter: yes. >> thank you very much. what's the advice dr. nancy snyderman gave to president clinton that he completely ignored? and it's back to the white house. who's asking george w. bush to come back and why? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." you know, we're a little early for this thing... want to hop in the back and get weird? no. family vacation... vegas. ♪

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president obama will host former president george w. bush later this month. he and his wife, laura, will return later this month. it will be former president's first public visit to the white house in more than two years. a huge fiscal deficit is threatening to sink california. the state budget is shored by nearly $16 billion. and governor jerry brown is proposing a recovery plan to include several spending cuts and tax increases. this comes as the governor proposes a $14 billion water project that has some scratching their heads. joining me is the former governor of california, gray davis. welcome, sir. glad to have you. >> my pleasure. nice to be with you. >> tell us why california has this chronic budget problem. >> that's a good question, alex.

i like to believe it's because california is place where we believe all things are possible. five years ago, facebook didn't exist and yesterday they're the third largest ipo in american history. the flip side of that is we tend to look at problems as solvable when maybe they're not. we look at revenues that's more robust than they turned out to be. >> you mentioned facebook. and i'm curious. that's going to bring in a lot of money, correct, for the golden state, in terms of taxes? >> it certainly will. no one knows exactly how much. but the point i wanted to make is facebook did not exist five years ago. twitter is even younger. google is the old man at 12. the ipod and the iphone are seven or eight years old. so california is -- we have problems in sacramento but we also are arguably the capital of

innovation in the country and maybe the world. we have a lot of creative people. how did we get in this mess? we always see the world through rose-colored glasses. >> you don't have to sell it to me. i'm a california girl. i absolutely hear what you're saying. that said, let's look at what governor brown has done in laying out his tax plan. first of all, what's the chance of this plan passing and secondly, do you think it will work? >> well, i give him high marks for being a truth-teller. he does not see the world through rose-colored glasses and his first, second and third priority is to put our fiscal house back in order. he inherited a $26 billion deficit. now we're down to $16 billion. i doubt if it will pass exactly as proposed. but frankly the state has no choice. it really has to do what previous generations did, which was to invest in infrastructure

and education and made it the safety innovation capital of the world. if we don't do that, it won't be the california we want to pass on to our children. >> governor brown is proposing plans for a $14 billion water project as well as a $68 billion high-speed train system. is this a case of hubrus or is it recovery through growth? >> a very good question. to the average people, seems like total nonsense. but the governor is dealing with the current operating budget, the things we have to do next year. high-speed rail is something that might get completed by 2020, 2025. our state is growing, people are still coming. all we have are cars and automobiles. we need another option for the citizens of this state. same thing, we're growing. southern california is essentially a desert.

we depend on water coming from the north and to some extent, colorado. so we need to improve a water system that was built 50 years ago for a state about half the size we are today. why are we spending money in tough times? these will projects that will require spending over a 20 or 30-year period, not this year. >> i'd like to read you something that mark paul said in an interview with "the los angeles times." quote, no governor under the system we have in california really has the ability to deal with the mess we have created. this is the third governor in a row who has run up against the same problem. is he correct, former governor davis? will we have to see a major overhaul of california's political system? >> i think the answer is yes. but happily, we're seeing it because the voters got that message three or four years ago. i campaigned for some of these changes. so did arnold schwarzenegger. we had democrats and republicans. so this year for the first time there's no democratic and

republican primary. just the top two vote-getters run-off. that whole reform was designed to get problem-solvers, pragmatic people, people who will deal with the issues. similarly, we didn't have the legislature draw redistricting lines for themselves and congress. a citizens commission drew that. so there have been changes. also last year, the people voted that our budget which used to require a two-thirds vote to pass, even without a tax increase, now only requires a majority. so there are reforms in place that i think will take hold over the next two to four years. we didn't get in this problem overnight. we won't get out of it. but i think the voters got that message and have put useful reforms in place. >> final question, you said recently that california is becoming more business friendly. do you think that is the key to california's recovery, more

business? >> absolutely because i like to say, alex, every dream begins with a job. and almost 80% of the jobs, 85% of the jobs in california are in the private sector. so business is just the name we give to the opportunity for you and your children to chase your dreams. you've got to get hired by someone to start off in life. by business friendly, i mean you can be from a little shoe store to google, whatever you want to be. but if you have a dream, you should be allowed to pursue that dream. in california, it takes ten or 15 years to do anything, which is absurd. we worked the groiundbreaking o b.a.r.t., it took 12 years to finish it. in china, they've built four or five in that time. we have to build things on a more timely basis to give people a chance to pursue their dreams.

>> governor davis, thank you so much. up next, facebook goes public and mark zushg berric is a whole lot richer. but is facebook a stock worth buying. that's up next here on "weekends with alex witt." a party? [ music plays, record skips ] hi, i'm new ensure clear. clear, huh? my nutritional standards are high. i'm not juice or fancy water, i'm different. i've got nine grams of protein. twist my lid. that's three times more than me! twenty-one vitamins and minerals and zero fat! hmmm. you'll bring a lot to the party. [ all ] yay! [ female announcer ] new ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge!

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if you were looking to jump in chen it first started trading yesterday on the nasdaq and flip for a quick profit when the price jumped up which many people anticipated it would, then you were sorely disappointed because even though the price did tick up, it ended relatively flat at about $38 yesterday. that was the price that the -- the initial price we saw this offering come out of the gate at. i think if you're that type of investor, then maybe this is not necessarily the best investment for you. but i think at the end of the day, this is all going to come down to whether you believe in facebook's future and what their evolution will look like. if that's the case, this is probably a good play for a long-term investor. >> what about buying a home? that has reached its most affordable level in more than two decades. look at the interest rates. that's just great right there. a new report by the national association of homebuilders. what does that tell us about the state of the economy overall? >> that tells us that housing is still affordable and that we have seen home prices come down

on a national basis. we've seen prices come down about 35%. that coupled with the fact that mortgages are at record rates means that housing is affordable for about 78% of all the homes sold in the first quarter, were affordable to americans making the median income of $65,000. great news if you want to buy a house. but there's a big hitch here. that's the fact that lending is still really, really tight. we're seeing appraisals come in low. and as long as that's the case, we're going to see housing move along sluggishly. on a larger level, as far as the recovery in housing goes, it comes down to the other four-letter word, jobs. >> right. the upgrades being offered by verizon and at&t. what do we know about the plans and do you think they're improvements? would you invest in them? >> i think it's great. they're coming out with data sharing plans. that's good news for people that have multiple devices. in the past what it's meant is that they've had to sign up --

different subscriptions for each device. that will all be brought together. at the end of the day, it's going to depend on what your data usage is. verizon is looking to gradually get rid of their 30 mst unlimited data plan when subscribers decide to upgrade their phones. at&t, on the other hand, is going to keep their unlimited plan in place. but they're going to start cutti cutting subsidies on the phone when you do upgrade. depends on your data usage. >> okay. morgan, thank you so much. in a few minutes, "office politics". dr. nancy snyderman on how hillary clinton played an unexpected role in her life. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." cold feels nice on sore muscles, huh?

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and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." at just past the half hour now, technicians are trying to figure out what delayed this morning's historic rocket launch. the spacex falcon 9 rocket and

its dragon capsule will be the first private spacecraft to make to it the space station. this is a critical test for nasa's plan to outsource trips to the space station. captain mark kelly joins us. thank you for being here. >> good to be here. >> i can't get over, one half second before launch -- how often does that happen when something just stops? >> it's happened with the space shuttle before. in the case of the space shuttle, it could be a month delay to replace an engine. with sparksx, they might be able to swap this engine out f. they do that, they could do it from a couple of days at the pad. >> do you think that's safe, though? i know a lot of people were questioning that rapid turnover. more were suggesting like you,

where it would take more like a month to do? >> they're not going to do anything that's not safe. this is a company that has done things differently. the idea is ultimately to lower the cost and increase the access for people and cargo to get to space. i imagine they'll be careful about it. >> do you think that private companies going into space will work? do you see this as truly the future of space flight? >> you know, initially i didn't. i was not a big fan of this plan that the obama administration had early on. but just seeing how it's developed over the last few years, to see companies, as an example, sparcex, how close the are, they're going to deliver cargo to the space station next week. that's amazing. they're going to ultimately be

able to deliver people to the space station. so i see the decisions that were made were very innovative. so they can be a little bit disruptive but ultimately i think this is good for our country and i think it's good for the state of florida as well. >> how about the company with a $1.6 billion are the, spacex has that contract with nasa for 12 flights to the space station. is this a big payoff for nasa and what about taxpayers? >> well, i think ultimately by trying to commercialize this industry, it should drive the costs down. and even at $1.6 billion to send 12 cargo flights to the space station, that sounds like a lot but when you compare what it costs to get cargo to the space station with the space shuttle, it's a bargain, significantly less expensive than it was with our old delivery system. >> what about that nasa wants? does it say that it wants private companies to conduct

missions to the space station? and if so, what types of missions does nasa want to focus on instead? >> well, that's part of the idea, would be to get those private companies to focus on the stuff that we're pretty good at doing now,hich is operating the space station, delivering cargo, ultimately crew to the space station. and nasa would do those harder things in the future, maybe sending back people to an asteroid or to the moon or one day going on to mars. what could ultimately happen is if we could keep some competition out there and keep the costs down, it could cause this industry to grow very rapidly. >> captain mark kelly, thank you for joining us. pass along our best wishes to your wife. she's always in our thoughts. >> i'll do that, alex, thank you very much. we continue our conversation with nbc chief medical correspondent dr. nancy snyderman. she shares the unexpected role

that hillary clinton played in her life as a young mother. but first i asked her if the u.s. is playing catch-up with the rest of the world in medical research. >> here's one of the crazy problems with research in this country. we tend to fund the same old dignified entrenched researchers who have already had all these grants. there should be a side fund where we say to the 21-year-old with the crazy idea, you're getting $50,000. go do it. we don't approach medicine the way that silicon valley approaches technology. how do you think genentech has made it? they perform outside the box. penicillin wasn't discovered because someone said, i think

i'm going to find an antibiotic. it was a sloppy scientist with a mold in a part of his lab. and guess what? nothing was growing around it. eureka, a moment. there are crazy young people with wild ideas. we should fund them. but increasingly those crazy ideas are happening in countries outside of the united states. and that's what worries me. we have to really challenge ourselves to think outside the box. what's the worst thing that could happen? some people fail. you waste a couple of million dollars. for a far ma company, it's a rounding error. i was on the lines when hiv/aids came through san francisco. you could literally kill me. so i gowned and gloved and put on a mask and i separated myself from you. what i'm urging young doctors to do now is take off those gloves and touch people.

the physician is a healer first and foremost. and human touch can heal. the technology helps that. but when the technology gets in the way or the fear of the patient gets in the way, you can't help somebody. >> you have had incredible highs, some of which must include having spoken with the president. there's a picture of you here talking with president clinton. what's that like? >> i moved to little rock, arkansas, in 1983, where there was this unknown little governor whose wife happened to practice family law. so that adopted daughter of mine 26 years ago, the adoption was done by our president's secretary of state. >> hillary clinton was the lawyer that handled your adoption? that's incredible. >> pretty funny, huh. small world. >> yeah. >> so when president clinton

decided to run for president, one of the more famous things i've ever told anybody was i advised him that i didn't think he was ready. and he thanked me for my advice and ran. and then when he was on the campaign trail, that was our first sitdown interview. >> bet you had a good laugh at the beginning. >> i sat down with him and i said, nice to see you. he said, i hope your feelings aren't hurt, i didn't take your advice. i said, yeah, it's going pretty well. and i used to go watch chelsea clinton at her ballet lessons. i'm very humbled by the fact that i've had great fortune. but i don't buy what we have been taught as women that it's all just luck. you and i have busted our chops to get where we are. >> true. >> and my children have watched me work hard. and it's given them good work

ethics m a ethics, and i've now watched three great young adults enter the world. >> our conversation with dr. snyderman continues at this time tomorrow. she talks about the sad vice she gave president obama which ended up being the cornerstone of his health care reform law. straight ahead, are some republicans going to extremes as we head toward the november election? and might this approach backfire? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online.

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susan, our first topic, going to extremes. we have arizona's top election officials saying it is possible the president may not make the state's november ballot, this due to questions about his birth certificate. there's also the flop this week over the super pac wanting to use reverend wright issue against president obama. >> i roll my eyes when i hear about what's happening in arizona. it's absurd. he'll be on the ballot. i don't know what good some republicans in arizona think they may be doing, but it takes away from the romney campaign because they're not discussing the important issue. but when we talk about the presentation of a potential ad, i think everyone says, we're not going to talk about the reverend wright, except now they're all talking about it baez because there's a proposed ad out there. but that stuff does, i think,

strategic consultants and folks say, why are they stepping on our message? >> well, picking up what you just mentioned there, with you, krystal, is this in some way a potential net gain for the president because maybe the middle of the roaders, those voters are turned off by these sort of attacks and the fact that we are talking about them? >> i think that's exactly right. part of the president's campaign strategy is to remind voters how extreme the republican party has become and tie romney to the more extreme elements of that party and basically say, he's out of step with mainstream thinking and values in the country. so when you have people in arizona talking about kicking the president off the ballot, you saw how great the birther controversy went down for donald trump last year, right? i don't think that's a particularly helpful direction for republicans to go in. and same with the reverend wright thing. hillary clinton and john mccain both in 2008 basically said that's beyond the pale and we

don't want to go there. the thought that they would be considering now going there paints them as extreme and like they're kind of off their rockers. >> so, david, i'm going to ask this question carefully. which one is more fair -- to associate mitt romney with this republican pitch man's idea to use reverend wright or to associate president obama with what reverend wright has said in the past? >> well, i think it's a little more fair to associate president obama with reverend wright because he was his pastor. that is a fact. he has disowned him, obviously, during the 2008 campaign. remember, mitt romney didn't really have anything to do with this proposed pitch from what we know. but this is the new era of super pacs where you have a multimillionaire basically could contemplate an ad campaign that has been discredited by many mainstream republicans but could have the power to go up on the air independently of the

campaign if he or she wanted to. this is the new era that we're dealing with. i think you could see more of these possible proposals pop up, especially during the summer when we're still getting engaged. we're in the lull after the primary season. that's a vacuum to fill, a news hole to fill. and we haven't really gotten into the throes of the campaign. so i think there could be more of this. >> david's answer, ladies, having been that he thinks it's slightly more fair to associate the president with reverend wright because of an admitted past. how about one do you think is m fair? >> i don't know that the reverend wright thing is a question of fair or unfair. i think it's more a question of right and wrong. to this question of how fair is it to attack mitt romney for an ad he had nothing to do with, it's not fair. neither were his attacks on the president over comments hilary rosen made, someone not associated with his campaign in any way. there is something going on on both sides there. i think, again, the reverend

wright thing, it's not whether it's fair or unfair. it's that this is not helpful attack for the country. it's racially motivated and devisive and not the right thing to do. >> it's not necessarily in the republican's best interest to talk about reverend wright. there is, in fact, a direct connection. there was obviously no connection to the super pac with mitt romney. there is no proof the person who funded the super pac saw the proposal. there is zero connection there. >> sit tight. president obama and mitt romney crossing party lines to praise presidents of the past. why is this happening so much? [ female announcer ] to get a professional cleansing system

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this is your heart line. this is your savings line. you see how they intertwine? yes. savings equals love, honey. yes. back now with the big three. we are talking about the ghosts of presidents past. we'll bring our guests back in. david, i'm going to begin with you. take a listen to these two sound bites of president obama and

mitt romney invoking presidents of the past on the campaign trail. here it is. >> this president gave another speech where he said it was crazy, that's a quote, that certain tax loopholes make it possible for multimillionaires to pay nothing while a bus driver was paying 10% of his salary. that wild-eyed socialist, tax-hiking tax warrior was ronald reagan. >> bill clinton announced the era of big government was over. president obama tucked away the clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas. it's enough to make you wonder if it was a personal beef with the clintons, but probably that runs much deeper than that. >> david, president obama praising president reagan. mitt romney praising president clinton. is this a tactic that will work? >> it's always stocker when you can go hey, look, the other party has done it. now you're criticizing me for doing it or proposing to do it.

that's hypocrisy. i think the romney argument is fascinating. that is a direct play for the clinton coalition, the more rural, working class, white voters that obama is struggling with and that he's struggled with in the primary campaign against hillary clinton. i think the romney campaign is cognizant of that. i think that's why he's making a direct pitch to those voters. there's always a risk in this. bill clinton is out in front, obviously will be campaigning and fund-raising for president obama. i think it's a play for the clinton coalition. >> democrats are big fan of ronald reagan? >> i would not go that far. it's all relative compared to republicans today, he seems quite appealing. i think that's the point here. again, to show how far to the right the republican party and mitt romney is part of that has moved. ronald reagan actually raised taxes several times during his

terms in office. >> susan, democrats -- rather, mitt romney fan of democrat bill clinton? >> one president is alive and one is not. the one who is alive gets to refute those. it's probably not in romney's best interest to use bill clinton. it shows that barack obama is doing anything to deflect his own record. >> thank you so much. that's a wrap, everyone, of this "weekend with alex witt" broadcast. see you back tomorrow at noon.

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